DISQUS

I agree with your comment. Citibank provides some real good service. I am pretty happy with their service.

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Harsh

I have had bad experiences with ICICI. I am gonna look into Citi Bank

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matt c., from italy.

I have had a similar experience to the one described in the article regarding ICICI, and given the current date - circa 1 year after the original posting - (from my point of view and experience with ICICI so far as an NRI based in Europe) - nothing much to my mind has changed from the originally described article.

And although I havent [yet] looked into alternatives to ICICI from an NRI standpoint - I have a feeling that all the alternatives from the competitors (Deutsche bank, ABN, Citibank, etc) will probably be about equal unless you have personal access to branches outside India where you can go in and meet people face to face - or if you have a "proxy" or a trusted friend / relative in India who knows someone inside the banking industry to help accelerate solutions to any problems you might be facing and stuck with a call centre agent who will not help you in anyway....

I do hope this has not hindered any prospective NRI clients as it is not meant to be a post of such a nature - just a post to mention that it would be (as the orignal poster has written) fantastic if some of the revenue from the banks advertising regime actually went into resolving some of the problems faced everyday by their clients - NRI or otherwise in order to make their banking experiences a lot simpler to deal with.

Matt C., (frustrated NRI client), Italy. (March 28 2007).

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jay

I opened account CITI NRI in November in Houston branch -USA & I haven't heard for 2 months about what happened to account opening (used to get sales people calls regularly for opening account but no follow up if the account is open or not! I understand they don’t care once their target has been met) then I was about to lodge complain with police because I thought money deposited for opening account is lost. I contacted several people finally I received my card & check after 3.5 months (I started believing in Miracle). I started to enable the account & add payee to my account Oh lord there is again long wait of 1 months to get either T-PIN or getting my email ID enable. Finally after long waiting 20 days I received my golden key T-PIN when started entering it I got message sorry this is not valid so contacted for help first three people really fooled me or what I don’t know (I can imagine this is month April) they said please type your 16 digit number then T-PIN for getting OAC they were also on phone & guiding me .I typed 16 digit number then T-PIN then call got cut I have no help this happened 3 times calling on fourth time I told helping person please I don’t want to do this again because after entering this 16 digit number & T-PIN phone gets silence so he try to help me in other way & finally told that T-PIN received by me is no more valid & he will be issuing new T-PIN so I have to wait another 20 plus days to receive this T-PIN. I am still not sure after waiting that long again I will go through the same cycle of faulty T-PIN & wait 20 plus days again this really ridiculous delay. Since I am doing this as an experiment I would like to see how long this takes to open account with CITI bank NRI & how long it takes to add payee & transfer money (I am waiting patiently for the golden moment)

I heard about CITI bank service how bad it is & very slow but I thought of trying it myself & so I had experience since November 2006 until April 10, 2007 (almost six months) I could not transfer money in automated way. Should I lose total respect to CITI bank? No I will see if it takes one year or several years to reach final goal of adding payee & paying bill.

Another thing when I opened account they told me I would get DVD of movie DON I never received it. Again it is fake & fooling experience. DVD doesn’t matter to me & its not my choice but still it is interesting how your bank is full of lies, slow & sluggish in processing every simple thing.

Is there any way CITI bank can speed up this process? I am not expecting for me because I still doing this an experiment to see when finally I can transfer money in automated way to my mother & pay bills. It could be really dream to be happened through CITI bank. Sorry to say the delay so sluggish process is really patience checking & sucks!

If CITI bank having some senses left or they have people with some business vision then they might try to find out speed up this process at least they can finish in one month not waiting like me for six months!

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vishal sanghvi

I have been a member of ICICI since 3 years and i keep waiting for online recovery of lost password to show up. The bank may have grown 3 times in its assets in last 3 years but website remains crappy. Its ridiculous that still cant improve online banking experience for NRI's which is prime medium of usage for us.

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siddharth jain

I was all set to open up a Citibank NRE account but then I just read the horrible reviews at mouthshut.com. The question is if not Citibank then who else? ICICI, HDFC, HSBC all have horrible reviews. Do consumers have any choice?

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Envy Mehta

I have an ICICI bank account from many years ago before they were listed on the US stock market (late 1990s). The experience at that time was very positive. Only a few branches had NRI cells, but the staff was very well trained and would go to the extent of offering you soft drinks/tea/coffee while they took care of your business. They needed you and you were made to feel special. The web site wasn't very different from today but at that time it was miles ahead of others (who had none).

Then things started going downhill. The bank expanded and now almost every branch has a NRI cell. But the back end processes were never streamlined nor fully integrated with the rest of the bank. Also, training seems to fall short.

The horrible integration of NRI features with regular features on the web site makes it hard to understand which features if any can be used by NRIs and which cannot. There is a lot of stale information on the web site and features disappear without a warning ...

Some personal notes:

(a) There used to be a customize option on the web site for giving your accounts friendly names, internationalizing date formats, etc - even the help talks about it, but the option is no longer there..

(b) Private banking is now called privilege banking, its the same thing but you get two different pages depending on how you access the site.

(c) Some features are restricted to NRIs in certain countries. US residents, for instance, cannot invest in mutual funds, but this is never clarified easily. Also, when you talk to customer service, they don't tell you that this is an ICICI bank only restriction and its in place because ICICI is trying to get a US retail banking license.. (US based NRIs can invest in Indian MFs using the appropriate procedures with other institutions.)

(d) Some pages still talk about Singapore branch overseas deposits, which are supposed to have better tax free interest rates. This facility is really no longer offered. Apparently, ICICI bank got in trouble over these with its US license application as these could be construed as instruments for tax evasion by US based NRIs.

(d) I am supposed to have a "relationship manager". The last time I tried to talk to the dude, I got no response over email. After multiple emails and waiting for a week, the only resort was to call up the bank directly. When I complained about the relationship manager, they asked me to send an email.

(e) I needed to prematurely close a deposit as I needed the money. So I requested through the web site "service request option" that the NRE FD account be closed. A day later I got an email response from a customer service dude asking if the account should be closed prematurely or on maturity. I responded back saying it should be closed prematurely. The next response back (again a day later) was truly mind blowing. He suggested that I go back through the web site and make the request - exactly the same as I had done in the first place.

(f) I helped a friend open a NRI account last year and the experience was horrible -- almost exactly as the original post. It took a couple of months to get the internet access working and confirm that the really really large sum (6 figures) that he had deposited via a check (and which had been very quickly debited from his US account) was actually in the account. The only reason he is still talking to me is because of his experience with HDFC bank with whom he had opened an account around the same time. They refused to take his local Indian address as the communication address and insisted on sending everything to his San Francisco home, even though he had told them that he would not be returning home for another month. He never got anything from HDFC bank at his US address...

(g) I am also a little worried about the level of security at ICICI bank. For instance, ICICI bank will send you a bank statement via email. But this email is plain-text (html) and includes full account details - numbers and amounts. I called up customer service and told them I wanted the email without full account numbers as done by other banks. This option is not there as they seem to think that email is secure. The same thing with NRI@icicibank.com, they often ask you to send sensitive information to this address that I would hesitate to reveal over a plan-text email that can be intercepted in transit. (trust me, I work in the computer networking field and know how easy it is to snoop on a company LAN or WIFI network.)

(h) Another security issue, major enough to warrant its own bullet. A side effect of the fact that you can access your ICICI bank account from any branch is that any branch officer can see all your account details. There does not seem to be any compartmentalization. And they can search by name, so an ill-motivated officer can get all your details from any branch in the country. There was a time when I had a to park a largish sum in the account and I started getting calls pitching various investment plans..

Having said the above, the only thing to add is that this experience may not be unique to ICICI, others may have similar horror stories. This lack of service is clearly an opportunity for a bank.

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Bharat Kapoor

Well at least I am not the lone soul hurt by ICICI - to sum it up their front line staff is purely incompetent.

I am so frustrated that i am ready to shut that account down as soon as my Citi gets operational. This is the dumbest set of people that i have ever worked with. At one time while opening my account I had a a little pissing contest with one of the employees and I have strong hunch that he sent me some nasty emails from one of his personal accounts and I kept receiving them for a few days. I did track them back to IP address in Tamil Nadu. But I could not prove that and since they were not threatening in nature there was no point in filing a report.

Actually I am sad that ICICI - possibly the only premier bank is going down the drain.

Oh well good riddance once I shut my account down.

I would not advise anyone to go via ICICI.

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Srini

I am not sure about ICICI bank but CITI BANK really sucks in providing service. They have lot of red tape around their policies. Just to change a mailing address they took almost two months and then they blocked my account for no good reason. It took another one month to get release my account from hold to active but still I couldn't do any transaction until I mailed them a letter with a signature so that they can match it manually. Again that took another one month. There is a guy name called Ganesan, Karthik in the Citi Bank, he was very upset that I sent a request to his citi bank email address. I wouldn't advice anyone to open an account in the Citi Bank. Ofcourse your individual experience gives you better judgement but my experience so far with Citi Bank is very sour.

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MHT

I sent a US$ 5000.00 check to be deposited into my ICICI NRE Account in Kandivali(E) Branch located in Mumbai. The deposit date was 13-Nov-07.
On 11-Dec-07, nearly a month later, my folks get a call from the branch manager, Mr Rakesh Mehta, that they have lost the check.
My folks got that in writing from the bank. Technically I can't even sue them for damages or inconveniences. When you deposit a check with ICICI, they make you sign something equivalent of a bond which states that they are not responsible for lost checks.
I have photocopies of the deposit slip, check & the letter from ICICI if anyone is interested.
So, please beware of ICICI and use CITIBANK instead.

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Chandra

Good one. I should try contacting Citi then. My saga of opening an NRI account with ICICI is still going on after 16 months....

1. The US address on website does not work
2. Customer service asks your email, phone # and full name every time you call, and after all that they do not have a way to identify your file. Because your file can only be accessed by some one who is in other office (all the time).
3. I mailed proof of address twice already and they seem to play around with the mails, lost the documents once and god knows what happend the second time.
4. I was reluctant to open the account after few months and receive phone calls everyday all of a sudden after 3 months of silence. And surprisingly they wont call you back at your convenience (I received the calls during work hours and I request they call me after couple of hours).

The list goes on and on.....

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Vishal Vibhu

I have had bitter exp with ICICI as well as HSBC. Now I am sending money to india via Axis bank. They take some 6-7 days to Xfer money but apart from that, there never had been any other issues. I jsut love Axis bank service. Only one wish "if they can remit a bit faster"..

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wiweq

I use remit 2 India,a service from times group to send money to India. It takes 7-8 days. I am happy with their perfact service.

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DP

Hello Mr Sharma,

Sorry, I had opposite experience with citi NRI acct. I did change my address at citi NRI account. It took them 8 months to change my postal address. It was same issue...my signature did not match. So they asked me all photo copies of driver license, passport, etc.
It was a pain.

Everytime, i called them...I dont have my acct number handy and they refuse to look up my account by SS or other things.

I am waiting to join another bk.

DP

Thanks,

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Dhananjay Awhad

Hello guys, my experience is much more worse then you all as I was dealing with SBI, and I was thinking of shifting to private banks like ICICI, CITI or HSBC, so I had a dilemma which bank to choose from, so I was searching for any input on this matter, luckily I found this article but it has only added to confusion because I was assuming that private bank value customers and have a excellent customer service, but reading all the comments I guess all the banks in India require a major image change over.

Regarding my experience with SBI....God knows when customer representatives will understand what customer service is all about. ok here is my story, since SBI was offering online banking too, I thought its a good idea to sign up for one, in order to do so there is no online form for that, you have to print out a form and then submit it to a bank. After that’s done they will mail you a temporary user name and password, my mail was never delivered saying it had an undeliverable address. God know what address they had over the envelope… any how my dad went to the bank and I got my online signup info. It had a username and password which while login always use to fail, so I trying the forget my password link in which after including all the details i.e. account #, name, branch, location it use to say wrong account #. My frustration had no limit. I called the bank representative he said my account needs to be activated and it will be effective next day onwards, its 8 months now I am yet to see that next day..... Every time I call they note down the account # for which I wanted online account enable for and the story never moved any further than this and there false promises kept getting bigger and bigger.....I expressed my anger and frustration but it all went to deaf ears.
Once I called… and some one else answered the call apparently the main person responsible for internet banking was on holiday. So this fellow after listening to my grievance assured me he will take care of everything and to my surprise acknowledged his knowledge is very limited in terms of internet banking but at least he was honest. The next line he said shocked me....I still remember his line "Sir, you have waited for 8 months so please waits for few more days" can you believe this....lol
anyhow I am yet to see my account online... and other big blunder from SBI , on the website it says one will receive two different mail one with username and other with password, but the letter which was handed over to my dad contained both the username and password in same envelope.....
So this is the INDIA shining story, some time I really think is India really shining at the grass root level or just the business getting big and big and that’s what they mean by "INDIA SHINING"

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Balaji

Hello,
Just a repeat of what everyone say but this time with CITIBANK NRI services. It took me 3-4 months to get the account opened, after 20 phone calls and fear of lost check. The account still intrigues me a lot as they created two account on my name. Website is not very easy to use. Recently I wanted to ask them about NRO fixed deposits and it took 2 hours to figure out that someone will call later to explain the needful.

There no value for time, there is no value for business and there is no sense of getting any work done. I think the guys are paid for pushing paper around. God knows when things would improve, I keep thinking of moving to India, but fear about how I can cope up with such stupidity in every step of the way!!!

-Balaji

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sandeep

Hi ..good write-up. Nice to know about everyones exp. here ..

I also wrote a similar post : http://spadhye.blogspot.com/2008/01/experience-...

Btw ..now that I already have citibank, I have an issue where not all Schemes from the AMCs are offered by Citibank to invest ? Is it true for HDFC or ICICI also ? Is there any restrictions from AMCs or it just thatbank has decided that NRI can only invest in these schemes ?

Please revert back if anyone has any clarification regarding this.

regards
Sandeep

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P Reddy

Hi,
I am in the process of opening an NRE account with ICICI Bank for the past 3 months! Yesterday, I got an email that my account is active (but no account number!) and that they will send all the information by post. God knows when will i get it! Anyways, I totally agree with all the negative comments about NRI banking services! I still am going through the frustrations and even if i get my account active on time, I will never be happy! Once again they have demonstrated how efficient our banking system is and how customer friendly they are? In fact, in one way they have helped me to make my decision to stay away from India! Oh I am not saying that banking experience will keep me away from India, its the attitude, its the people and its the way they treat fellow indians!
I don't know if I sound too harsh! I was a very patriotic Indian when I came to Canada, 7 years ago and passionate about our culture and people and everything! I used to argue and debate the good things about culture. Now, after some bad experiences, I don't feel the same way about the culture and country anymore! Here are some experiences!
My mother was in her last few days of her life and I had to rush to India to be with her. It had just started my MSc program here in Canada and I wanted to come back to complete it. Further, I was offered PhD in the same lab! However, my passport was about to expire and I wasn't sure when I will be coming back! I told my supervisor that I will not leave my mother in the deathbed but would like to come back but not sure when! When depends on GOD! So, I requested my faculty to issue me the admission offer letter so that I can apply for extension of student authorization before I go. They had to bend their rules to issue me a letter! However they did it and it was for humane reasons!
With this letter I went to the Indian Consulate in Vancouver to renew my passport! According to the instructions on the website, they would not renew the passport unless its valid for less than 6 months, however they would renew it if there are strong reasons or special cases. So before going there, I called the Consulate and asked them if I can renew my PP, they said YES and they also told me that they would do it less than 48 hours. I booked my air ticket and went to the consulate to apply for renewal. It was the time that real saga started for me.
First, they would not accept debit card/credit card/ check! Its only cash! They made me to go around looking for cash. I had to rush because they will close by 12 noon. I don't blame them because it’s the way they deal and I should have found out myself!
When I submitted my application in the counter, a senior officer (Vice CG) came and told me that they cannot renew my passport! I was surprised and got bit angry! He told me that I don’t have a valid reason to renew my passport and that I should go to India to renew it! I had not mentioned about my mother’s case and did not feel to do it! I have an offer letter from the faculty and I need a passport to apply for student authorization. The letter said very clearly that currently I am an MSc student and will be transferred to PhD in 4 months and the dean signed it! The officer said that it’s a “probable letter” and not good enough to renew my passport! He also said that Canadian authorities would never issue me a study permit for such a letter! I told him very clearly that I needed a passport that is valid enough to apply for an extension of student authorization and he need not have to worry about Canadian authorities. They will make their own assessment. He wouldn’t let me explain my situation and he keep telling me that I should go to India! Then I have to tell about my mother’s case but that did not impress him! The bloody fool asked me if I could produce a document from the hospital that my mother is dying! What a proof? I could not speak a word! I could not control my emotions and I broke!
I did not give up. I raised my voice, sat on the floor and shouted, I will not leave this place if you do not issue me a passport! Who in the world gives a letter telling that some will die? Isn’t that a probable letter in any case? I told him, my mother is in a government cancer hospital and they will not even care to attend her and please do not expect me to get any kind of letter from them! However, I can give him the details of her so that he can check with the hospital authorities to find out more information about the case! He wouldn’t do that and keep insisting that I should arrange a letter! Who in the world insist on such things? All I am asking him is to renew my passport! I am an Indian and holding a valid passport! Do they need all these to renew a frick’n passport? I am not asking them a visa or refugee status!
As I was protesting and waiting in the lobby, sitting on the floor, the Consulate General came to talk to me. I explained him the situation and he seemed helpful in the beginning but again took me for a ride in the hell! He said that, if they have to issue me a passport they have to bend the rules! I said what I read in the consulate website (about the special cases) and even showed the proof! Finally, in the evening he agreed to issue me a passport on a condition that I write a letter in my own handwriting requesting a passport! Gods knows what difference the letter will make? After as long discussion they issued me a passport in 2 days! I paid extra charges for the document
They issued me a passport with my name and address written in ink and smeared all over (lamination problem?). I wasn’t happy but did not have any choice or time to go all over again with these people. I used the same passport to extend my study permit and left for India. The passport really looked fake and suspicious (at least for American eyes!). Anyways, I took a risk and went to India, a journey that I would never forget!
In 2 weeks my mother passed away and after fulfilling all the responsibilities as the only son i came back to complete my studies. The Canadian immigration officer told that my passport looked very bad and that I should get a replacement. Again, I went to consulate and met the same vice CG! He did not seem to recognize me but I reminded him of my case (not sure if he could recall anything!). I told him that i need a replacement. He said he will issue me a new passport but i have to pay them again. Will you believe this? I have to pay extra money for their mistakes! When i asked him why they issued me such a passport in the first place and why they didn't not follow quality control measures, he sarcastically told me that he doesn't need any quality control lessons from me! He went on to say that, passports of such kind are no big issues! I felt like laughing! When i told him that I will face problems if I try to cross US border, he said that I would face problems regardless of the damage or suspicious nature of the passport! According to him, americans will check everyone no matter what passport we carry!
Again, when I told him that Canadian authorities gave me a 4 year extension of study permit for the same PROBABLE LETTER on a suspicious looking passport, he uttered sarcastically that "I never knew Canadians are so kind to Indians" I became speechless! What will you talk to these kind of guys? I paid extra money, got my passport and decided that i should apply for immigration to Canada! Since then i am eagerly waiting to get my Canadian passport! Why is such a feeling in me? Why is this transformation? Why we indians do not feel the need to help our fellow citizens? In my case, the consulate office's sole responsibility is to take care of the needs of indian nationals in their jurisdiction! Why is that canadian authorities (my faculty) bent rules to issue me an admission letter even before i could complete my MSc but Indian government created all problems to issue me a passport! Did they really bend the rules? Was I a special case? If so why couldn't they do it right away? Why did they make me go through all the trouble? Its really hard to understand!
So this banking experience is no different from any other experience that i had with! I have a feeling that, after coming to this part of the world we have become more courteous and understanding. we have seen and experienced very good customer service and benefits of e-commerce. However, our fellow indians are still with the old system (transforming?) and trying to come out of the shell fighting bureaucratic hurdles, red tapism, dealing with age old laws, rules and regulations? Only god knows what RBI requires these banks to comply with? I was surprised to know that to open a NRE account with ICICI, they need 3 months of transaction statements from my local bank! They need the actual original paper statements and wouldn't online statements or copies by fax or email! I did not understand the rationale! Anyways, I agree that the banking experience for many people here is PAIN rather than a PLEASURE but i have strong feeling that we wouldn't have felt pain had we lived in india and ignorant about the advancements of banking elsewhere!

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Ani

hey Gaurav
how many years is that you are an NRI? unless you were born there I cannot comprehend how we Indians start saying things like "in india they..." or spell cheque as check, funny how britishers, australians and americans never loose their indentites and idiosnycracies when they leave their country of birth ! no offence meant here, even my own dad is guilty of this.

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sandeep

12 months ago

I am in the same boat as all of you. Opened an NRE account with SBI on my visit to India in June - at their NEw Delhi NRE head office etc etc... Came back to the US, logged in to the online SBI acct etc...everything was smooth till now...here is where the problems started. Looked for a local US number to call to check how I could transfer $$ from my Bank of America acct to my NRE acct.....20 calls later (with excuses like everyone may be out to lunch ...at 3:00 PM CST ???), still have no answers....I am told your acct is in India....Well, I was told by SBI chcago that an NRE acct can only be opened in India....At this point, have no clue what to do and totally frustrated.....Is Citi NRI the answer ??

and for Ani above, before you bash Gaurav or anyone, I have been in the country for 20+ years...still consider myself an Indian, but after having lived here, you have got to spell things like other do i.e. check (not cheque) and line (not a queue) etc...ITS CALLED ADAPTING.....lol

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v.k.shukla

11 months ago

Dear friend,

You are not only one but there are many like you and me victims of carelessness and unprofessionalism of ICICI Bank. I am 15 years old NRI customer of ICICI Bank. I had account in Noida and doing transactions like remittances, placing in NRE-FD, transferring to registered payee etc normally. I bought a house in Dehradun and opened NRE and NRO accouts there and experienced all hell of frustation never had in my life before. Imagine I am a very senior Banker more than 35 years in Banking industry in India and abroad. Worked in many position Manager to CEO. If I can face those kinds of problems then who can not ? Just an example : I had to pay some insurance premium of 5 lacs in August, I had surplus funds in Savings in March, i requested to place in NRO for 4 months and transfer on maturity to NRO SB, requested specifically with 15G form not to deduct any TDS as I have only that interest income as Income in India, I dont file Tax return in India. I issued a cheque dated 5 days after the maturity date to Insurance company. Now listen Bank did not liquidate deposit instead they rolled it over, they deducted 30% Tax on Interest, My Insurance cheque was almost bounced If my insurance agent did not advise me that Sir there is no fund in account. I called Bank and asked they told me that they dont have any instruction at the time of opening the deposit so roll over is automatic, they dont have in system the flag of NO TDS so tax was deducted automatically, now to get the deposit liquidate I have to visit the branch write a request to liquidate which I did and ecven got amount crdited after three days. To avoid fear of lapse of policy I did all whatever they wanted. Then I lodged a complaint to NRI@customercare.com. they replied and told to complain from internet login, I did that. Somebody without reading the complaint said that deposit is not linked to the account complain thru correct account. Status as of now is that I have not received a note of sorry from any where nobody could understand the complaint. There are few more I will upload later. I request you to make NRIs aware of ICICI Bank's carelessness and unprofessionalism so that they dont find new victims.

Now a days these so called private banks are relying on agents. they dont have any banking knowledge and experience. they are just "Sarak Chhap" MBAs. They are busy in making money by broking the loan deals thru Banks.

I am releived by posting the comments. Please be very careful from Citibank also. I had offshore Singapore account. Never trust on investment suggestions of your relationship officer. They will digest all your hard earned savings. Any investment proposal given by them you rate thoroughly. Otherwise just run DCA (Dollar checking account) and RCA (Rupee checking account) or FCNR nothing else. Never gove them freedom to change your money from one currency to other without your approval of exchange rate. They are big brother (international crook ) if ICICI is a local Bhai.

Shukla

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SK

Worst Customer Service I have ever experienced.
1. I lost my cards, I was asked to write a request for issuing new cards.
2. I mentioned I don't remember my account number.
3. The phone banking officers mentioned I don't have to worry about it. "Citi NRI service just need your passport copy, signature should be visible. and date of birth mentioned.
4. I called in back to confirm, I was assured the same that they don't need any further information than mentioned in point 3. and said they are not supposed to reveal the account numbers to me, so that's fine.
5. I have included my blocked transaction numbers as well in the written request for new cards.
6. I never herd from any of the banking officers and nor a mail/email was sent to my address.
7. After repeated efforts of trying to find the information on the status of my new cards.
8. I was told since I didn't mentioned the account number citi NRI is not issuing me new cards. When asked how am I supposed to give them account numbers when I already mentioned that I don't have them. One of the citi banking officer gave me the account numbers and asked me to write a written request again !! Wait a minute you are not supposed to give me this information, how did u give it me? The answer was ... there is a situation now where citi NRI service phone banking officers can deviate the polices and provide customer service. ... I was like can't you have done this before and issued me new cards? why do u have to waste my time?
9. This was heights of stupidity of the phone banking officers. Half the time they don't know what they are speaking. Either the person in customer service needs more training or the persons who are banking with citi NRI are stupid.
10. I cleared all the security questions that were asked and u got the correct passport copies with signatures. Provided u with the blocked transaction numbers, what else is holding up to issue me new cards? what ever !! Am I going to get my cards or not? When asked this question the phone banking officer named SUNIL transfered me to his manager named Akshay runs way from the problem instead of solving it.

What kind of customer service is this ?

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SK

citi NRI customer service sucks !! I hope bank of America, wamu, commerce bank extends their over seas expansion in India

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Sanjay

I have very bad experience with ICICI bank. It looks like they wanted some bribe & could not get that makes delaying the process. Lost my file in one branch and nobody know about the file. Finally I called them & informed that I'll seek the lawyer in USA thenthey started the process with turtle speed. Lot's of e-mail, even in one month average I'd to send the documents via FedEx (ended up $60~80 per mail). Finally I e-mailed them stating that I was doing the baby sitting job. Never never seek ICICI. That's the India's most suck's.

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alpha_1976

Thanks alot for your detailed comments about what happened. I will go with citibank.

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Ramakrishna Suryadevara

I am in the same boat right now. ICICI service sucks. I opened my account by walking into Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar branch at Hyderabad a month ago. I am back in USA after three weeks and struggling to get my online account enabled as it was disabled unilaterally by ICICI without me logging on to it at least once.

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GA

ICICI Bank is a shit hole.. bunch of losers work over there. I could not find even one person with a sound attitude for customer relations.

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abdulla vazhayil

im abdulla vazhayil ihave open an account in icici bank what i can do?

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madhu

HDFC is not far behind ICICI infact I had super trouble with their paper work day in day out I spent approx $500/- FedXing their documents day in day out - They are nothing but bunch of LAZY ASS Wipes, Finally the account was never active.

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Mayur

Thanks for sharing your experiences guys. I am gonna go with the Citi bank now.

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Raj

I have an a/c with Axis bank (UTI), it was a good option at that time, coz no min deposit for NRI's, so i went along,,,,geese....NONE OF THOSE BUFFOONS KNOW;S WHAT THEY R DOING!!,,,,PEOPLE, PLEASE, DON'T EVEN GET CLOSE TO THAT BANK, worst service, and if you call them,, it willbe like marry go around over the phone, no one takes any responsibility of the call, they just hand ball to others....it sux!!!!
cummon pple,,,tell me some decent bank where i just wanna send some money to my mom in India,,,is that hard???

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Darshan

I am very much agree with your comments. In my case I added mandatory holder to ICICI and submitted all the papers. I returned to US after that thinking that everything is alright but I realised that they lost all my documents. Fortunately, I had all copies but it didn't work. I had to redo all the procedure during my next visit to India. Tremendous Inconveniecy.

Above all, ICICI operated my account and cut the charges without informing me any policy change. The customer service is so rude and executives are immature young kids. They know nothing. I am closing my account in a week. That's it. No more relationship with ICICI.

I suggest that NO NRI should open account with ICICI. They are short of fraud. I am also filing complaint agains them to RBI in Bank Ombudsman. You should also do it.

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Nich

I have NRI accounts with both banks as well. I didn't have any significant problems during opening the ICICI account or Citibank account. However there is one thing that has really gotten up my nose about ICICI - When you do online transfers, you need to enter in your ATM card details - my ATM card had expired, so I asked customer service to send me a new ATM card.

Their response was that I need to pay approximately Rs.400 for the issue of the card. I simply cannot understand why I should have to pay for a new ATM card and refuse to do so, it should be ICICI's responsibility to send me a new one free of charge.

The bad thing about Citibank is that they give you a worse exchange rate than ICICI's Money2India when you convert dollars to rupees, so in other words they make more money out of you each time you do a transfer.

My solution has been to use ICICI's Money2India when converting, but then having the amount put into my Citibank account, where everything is a bit more user friendly.

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Nitesh

Thanks for such a nice view. I do have very good experience of managing CITI bank Residence account & very bad experience of ICICI indian account. Now when i am planning to open a NRI, i found ur suggestion to be the best. I also think that managing account should be easy than the interest rates. We can send money by using ICICI & can transfer money to CITI. Thanks again.

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Saurabh Sharma

After reviewing all posts I can say that going with CitiNri was a good decision from me. I am satisfied with Citi Nri service. After submitting all forms for opening an account i received my welcome kit (Cheque book, International Debit card, etc) within 4 days and username and password for internet banking 2 days later. As far as ICICI is concerned now after reading these posts I believe ICICI gives worst experience to their customers. As one of my colleague also suffering from their worst service and their customer service staffs. His internet access to his account was disabled. He tried to contact them by email and even spend so much in calling directly to Indian branch from Dubai. But not much luck.

So I only recommend that those who want to open NRI account must go with Citibank Nri Rupee checking account with offer of zero balance for 10 years plus other gifts time to time. I am satisfied with their service till now.

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shiv

Citibank does have an investment account, which can be opened online instantly and you can trade in all the kinds of mutual funds and shares.

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Post

I echo completely with the difficulty to deal with Icici. It took me 4 months to open the account. Then I tried the mandate so that someone local can operate the account and that took for ever - it still has not happended after submitting it twice. I am so frustrated that I just wont bother with ICICI anymore once I get my money out

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pachhu

Yes, me had almost similar experience with the same banks. However, a/c with both ICICI and CitiBank have been opened, but the one with ICICI is now dormant ( u should know y).

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Ajay

None of the banks are perfect & I do share experiences of such sort with CITI, ICICI & SBI
In October 2007 i opened CITI NRE & was promised Sawariya DVD but till date no news OUT OF STOCK & call centre has no clue but just to say sorry & it will be sent to you shortly
In 2003 opened ICICI NRE so far experience has been satisfactory but ATM card requirement to transact online suxxxxx.....
Opened in 2003 SBI NRE to apply for house loan but never used, their online system never worked even after physically giving application to the Fort branch i never received password.

In the end i now think old days were better you had a personal touch with your bank & employees who were answerable, since call centre took over the customer service it has become KASHT SE MAR service.

unfortunately now there is no option, please advise if there is!

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Vin-It

I think paying for some service is better than dealing with DESI IDIOTS. You all know how their LAZY A$$ Work environment is over there. Nothing is taken seriously. No One is Responsible for any crap there. That is why Even Call Centers sucks over there. ALL of those IDIOTS have ENGLISH Names and act like they are Bloody BRITS...Eventhough we all know that they are damn Desis who just sugarcoats everything and act like they Care a lot! They should take away all the call center jobs out of INDIA. Just my few cents. I can say lot more, but, no one would want to hear my opinions or Experiences with ALL the Desis. Ciao

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ram

Your ICICI NRE account experience = my State bank of India NRE account experience.
I sent a nominal sum of money as a test transfer to SBI NRE account. We were enquiring for about 6 months about the money when it finally arrived. Mean while money to SBI loan account goes thru in 4 days.
I tried to create an account with SBI new york for remitting money, 5 months after I sent in my application, they call me to let me know that they created an account and are sending the initial remittance request( 5 months after I needed to send it), I had already canceled my check and used some other service to send money.

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Dee

I Had similar experiance. I have accounts with both banks and usally I deposit money in those account while I am still in Canada. One year I took Traveller's checks with me to India and deposited in my account and ICICI took 5 weeks to provide me with cash. Citibank credit was almost instant. Also citibank mastercard has pin number so you can shop for any amount as long as you have money in your account. I have tried upto One Laksh ruppees shopping in a day on my citibank account while ICICI limit is twentyfive thousand. ICICI management does not know how to treat NRI from western countries. They are two paranoid and puts too many blocks. They had forgot to add s in my Mrs. name and I became Mr. abc and took they almost one year to correct it. I had to sent emails to senior officers. You can find more of ICICI insanities by googleing 'ICICI insanities' You will also find senior ofiicors emails listed there too.

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Nsingh

I also have worst experience with ICICI bank. There is no time when this bank will close. I am tired with dealing with ICICI. They are asking me to come to branch from US and change my address. What a nonesense. I cannot change my address siting anywhere in world. One must visit branch that is what ICICI customer care says.
haha

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GNPJ

I have a very bad experience opening an NRI account. The customer service is very ignorant. I mean I just don no understand how many times I have to FEDEX a document from the US to India. I guess they work with a casual attitude and that is what is going to kill their business eventually.
A shame on ICICI and its operations. I got stuck with ICICI and still not successful in opening and account after 3 months of back and forth.

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Prad

Thanks Mr.Sharma, for the insight.

btw, do you know if I can open NRI a/c without a valid visa (?) :) what I mean is , I extended my petition from the US itself, I am yet to go out of the US to get it stamped. so the visa in my passport is still expired.

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GB

CITI NRI STAY AWAY
Citi NRI is the worst website ever built. For one the login is kinda goofy. You have a complex 16 digit login ID that you can mask with a user id. However your user id is mapped to your login id on each computer (Basically I can have as many user ids as I have computers.) You delete cookies and you are back to the drawing board. The password you gotta type in using your mouse using some goofy onscreen keyboard. Then you go to a cluttered screen with over 200 links. God help you if you want to find anything there. If you want support you have to send an email from the support link, however if you send an email from your mailbox you will never get a response. After a week or so somebody responds without reading your question. Keep in mind the response never appears in your mailbox (Your mailbox always shows empty). Once you go to the support link and see the inadequate message, you are required to respond to that message (They call is a query. I guess they think their employees are like databases you execute queries against). However make sure you don’t click on any link before you respond; because once a message is read, it is automatically removed from the support link taking away any ability to respond

ACH transfers take from 3 weeks to 6 months (They take money out of your source bank account on the same or next day but take from weeks to sometimes 6 months to credit any information into your account).

The other scheme they have going on is they turn your account into an inactive / dormant status for inactivity (meaning moving money in or out of the account) thereby locking you out of your account and trapping any cash you have in your account. If you want your account to be operational, they ask you to physically go to a branch in California or to one of their offshore offices in India. If you don’t you will not have access to your cash. By law they are required to notify you prior preventing you from giving you access to your account. They get around this by changing your account to an inactive status first which prevents you from transacting on your account (even though you can log in normally and look at your balance and stuff giving you an illusion of normalcy). After a further status of inactivity they change it to “Dormant” totally preventing you from having any access to your account.

Finally in terms of support it is impossible to find a telephone number to their support desk. If you ever need to call CITI NRI Helpdesk their number is 800 248 4674

Overall CITI is a very unethical bank. The most unethical I’ve seen so far especially in their international dealings (US Regulators and guarantees have forced them to maintain a certain level of honesty and transparency in the US). Their website is the least user friendly of all websites and CITI NRI is the worst by far of any banking site. It’s a mess

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DINESH

YOU CAN USE YOUR CITIBANK CARD IN INDIA ON ANY ATM MACHINE WITHOUT ANY SERVICE WHICH IS AMAZING

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DD

Closed my ICICI NRE a/c in 2002 due to bad service. CITI NRE a/c since 2004. Free Withdrawl from any ATM Machine in INDIA. Money Transfer is amazing as they accept personal cheque and within 24 hours money is transferred to CITI NRE a/c. I hope they should offer direct Money Transfer from Canadian Bank A/c to NRE a/c which is currently offered in US. I don't like their Exchange Rate.

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Nomeames

I have a citi nri account for last 6 years. No problems whatsoever. I would highly recommend them especially becuase you can deliver a DD to anywhere in India for free within a day's time.
ICICI? ? I am yet to find a good review yet about this bank. Its a corporate bandit. I am looking for any person who has had a good experience with ICICI. They openly flout all RBI norms and yet get away ... I wonder how.

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GokulSweetLal

7 months ago

I also have faced similar problems with ICICI

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jatinder8

7 months ago

Please call me 302 4651509

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Hari

7 months ago

Interesting read. I have had an ICICI account for years and used it only for basic non emergency funds transfers. I recently tried to login after a while and forgot my password. I have been trying to get them to reset it for 2 months now!!

When you call, the person picking up the phone, only opens another issue for some other god forsaken dept to reset and then they mail it to your India address in 9 business days!!! In 9 business days, the whole world will have changed!!!!!

I finally told them yesterday that I would close my account soon as they reset my password. Doesnt seem like CITI is a better option based on the comments here...Anybody try HSBC??

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KAKAJI

6 months ago

If there is any soul satisfied with ICICI NRI/NRO/Resident Account or Webtrade account on this earth, please upload your photo. I am dying to see such an isolated face.
KAKA

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shakthi

6 months ago

hai sir,
i have a icici bank account number... i wnt the address through the account number.pls help me.
shakthi.

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ICICI account opening saga

6 months ago

I am experiencing the same saga right now. I have an NRE account with ICICI bank and for the last 3 months I have been trying to open an NRO account. So far, no luck. The customer service at NRI Mumbai desk do not seem to know much and upper level management is still stuck in 1940 mentality. I have rapidly expanded their business but they have not kept up the pace on the customer service side of operations. I sent out fresh set of documents (4th time) and hoping all the issues gets sorted out. Frankly, ICICI bank seriously need to streamline their NRI service portfolio and related paper requirements.

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jigar

i have similar experiance with ICICI. last two years, i still can't use my money here or acess online account after many visits and headache.
icici sucks

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SANTHOSH

in my view citibank provides very good service .u can withdraw ur money in india without any charge from any atm. and their dd delivery system is very good service that u can send ur money to any place without any postal charges and without any confusion and they re sending sms ur account details.CITIBANK IS THE BEST BANK WITH BEST SERVICES

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neelakandan murali

I received login and trans.password for my internet banking on my NRI account No.621501075011. My user id. MURALIA2. But I not able to connect despite several attempts. Kindly send me new password immediately. My email. murlin@omantel.net.om.
N.Murali, P.O.box 127, postal code 133, Al Kuwair, OMAN.

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Nilesh Trivedi

I also have account with ICICI bank and Citi bank. ICICI Bank really sucks

1. you call ICICI toll free number of USA, and most of the time they won't be able to resolve your queries, so you need to call their NRI Banking centre at Hyderabad at your own cost.

2. If you want to wire transfer money to account X call ICCI. You need to wire transfer money to accont Y call ICICI.

3. Whenver you want to add a payee (for wire transfer) in your ICICI bank account, you need to tell them many things including passport number ( who remembers their passport number ?).

4. You need to keep ICICI Bank debit card handy, because it asks many other verification question if you want to transact ( move money) in your ICICI Bank account.

5. Want to add a mandate holder or any other changes, you need to submit all the documents again ( it is like opening an account with them again), you need to give passport copy, utility bill .. and every damn thing should be notarized and sent to India.

6. ICICI Bank says that when you add a payee they will send a SMS text to your USA cell phone number but that never happens, you must call ICICI Bank.

Citibank is much better, their forms are easy to fill out, and it is as good as having a bank account with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia, Chase. Just few clicks and you are done. ICICI bank really sucks stay away from it at all cost.

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ANAND

I also have faced similar problems with ICICI, IT SUCKS !!!

CITI BANK IS MUCH BETTER THAN ANY BANK IN INDIA.

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Victim

My experience is also HORRIBLE WITH ICICI BANK. I have not been able to see my statements of NRI/NRE accounts even after years.
Not only this, these people even provided my bank details to some one else. I can trust that person because they provided me too with information, which I wasn't entitled to.
In addition to all these problems, they train their CSRs to speak so much, ufffff. I really get tired of hearing their HOWEVER and extra long sentences and those even irrelevant.
It really SUCKS. I have now decided not to use this anymore for any purpose.
I would never ever advise anyone to go for ICICI Bank.
This is MY PERESONAL VIEW.

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kumar

you provided useful information, Thanks for that

I had same problem with the customer service people, I hate to talk to ICICI NRI customer services.

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Pallavi Madhok

Hi Gaurav

Welcome to Citibank.. and I hope you are enjoying the services of your Citibank Rupee Checking Account.

I am the product manager of RCA & sit out of Mumbai India. I was delighted to read about the positive account opening experience you had with Citibank.

Can you please share your please email your contact details on my office id with ; as I have 400 plus Gaurav's on my database & therefore dont know which one of them is you.

I was hoping to call you & identify further areas of service improvements

Regards

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Savin